Artworks that tell stories may be derived from various sources, including the Bible and other religious texts, classical mythology, history and even everyday life. Telling Tales, an intimate exhibition featuring 12 artworks, examines how artists communicate the essential aspects of a tale through gesture, setting, symbol and composition. The artworks presented in Telling Tales include Edgar Degas’ dynamic history painting The Rape of the Sabines; Vincenzo Catena’s portrayal of a popular religious story, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt; a lively bambocciate, a scene of Italian street life by 17th-century Flemish artist Willem Reuter.
Japanese Woodblocks
Images of beautiful women provide an important theme for the Japanese art of ukiyo-e, which can be translated as "pictures of the floating world." Woodblock prints by ukiyo-e artists became extremely propular during the Edo period (1600-1868), due to the blending of classical Japanese aesthetics with contemporary urban themes. In this medium, the hedonistic worlds inhabited by geisha, courtesans and Kabuki actors were often portrayed. Beautiful women, or bijin, were depicted alone as well as in small and large groups, entertaining themselves by playing games, preparing for the evening or promenading through the city with their attendants and children.
Durga: Avenging Goddess, Nurturing Mother
Within the Hindu pantheon, all goddesses—among them Durga, Devi, Parvati, Uma and Kali—are considered to be forms of one goddess, or the “Great Goddess,” regarded by her devotees as the source of all existence and the supreme deity. The Devimahatmya, a 5th- or 6th-century Hindu text that accounts the Great Goddess’s creation and feats, states that she will appear every time she is needed, in different regions and in different forms. Many communities revere a particular incarnation of the Great Goddess, or may venerate a particular aspect of her, such as her strength and power or her fertility.
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The Collectible Moment
The Collectible Moment presents, for the first time ever, a comprehensive view of the Norton Simon Museum’s photography collection, which not only includes important prints by master photographers Ansel Adams, Manuel Alvarez-Bravo, Immogen Cunningham and Edward Weston, but also modern and experimental prints by Diane Arbus, Lewis Baltz, Judy Dater, Betty Hahn, Robert Heinecken, Anthony Hernandez, Kenneth Josephson, Aaron Siskind, Frederick Sommer, Edmond Teske and Minor White. Approximately 130 works by historical and modern photographers will be on view with special emphasis on the contemporary artists.